In September 1996 the long power struggle between Afghanistan’s armed factions appeared to have taken a decisive turn when Taliban militias captured Kabul. Despite the fundamentalist nature of the Taliban movement, many hoped that it might mean an end to the deadly rivalry between Afghan factions, which had killed 25,000-45,000 Afghans, mostly civilians, since the collapse of Afghanistan’s communist government in April 1992.

The Taliban (Persian for "students") emerged at the end of 1994, soon taking control of Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar and neighbouring areas. The "students" were recruited from schools set up among Afghan refugees in Pakistan during the years following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. From the time of the first Taliban successes, Pakistan denied any official support, but most observers discounted such denials, noting the modern logistic support and sophisticated communications equipment at the disposal of the "students." With a reputation more for zeal than for experience, they offered to rid the country of the corruption and lawlessness that had flourished during the years of Soviet occupation and that had continued after the Soviet withdrawal left Afghanistan divided among warring factions and local warlords. Within a year they had overrun Herat and western Afghanistan. For most of the next year, they remained outside Kabul, launching frequent rocket attacks on the city.

In June Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose Hezb-i-Islami forces had bombarded the government in Kabul until driven from their positions by the Taliban, returned to rejoin the government as prime minister. He immediately attempted to open contacts with northern Afghanistan’s powerful warlord, Gen. ’Abd ar-Rashid Dostam. From his power base in Mazar-e Sharif, Dostam continued to control a virtually independent northern Afghanistan.

After a rapid offensive in September, Taliban forces captured the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, together with important areas in Nangarhar and Laghman provinces. With these territorial advances most of Afghanistan’s traditionally Pashtun homelands were united under Taliban control. The gains included Kabul’s main road to Pakistan and sealed the fate of Rabbani’s mostly Tajik government. On September 27, Taliban forces entered Kabul, where they met little resistance from government forces. Their first act was to execute Afghanistan’s last communist president, Mohammad Najibullah (see OBITUARIES), who had been living inside the UN compound in Kabul since 1992. President Rabbani and other members of his government retreated north of Kabul. Government forces under Ahmad Shah Masoud withdrew to the Panjshir valley. In October Masoud and other former government forces formed a military alliance with General Dostam. At year’s end it was reported that Taliban forces had captured an opposition air base north of Kabul.

Since their first appearance, the Taliban had been supported by many ordinary Afghans, who welcomed their promise to restore normal life after years of destructive war. Popular enthusiasm was soon diluted, however, when the Taliban turned their captured rockets against civilians, especially in Kabul. In all areas under their control, the Taliban enforced a rigorous Islamic social order, insisting that all men grow beards and forbidding women to work outside their homes. Schools for girls were closed, and Islamic law was enforced by amputations and public executions. Restrictions on women provoked international criticism.

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.